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Well, almost *all* movies are wider then 16x9 so they will always have black bars top and bottom. There are a few exceptions.   Pretty much only TV shows are 16x9.

This is completely unrelated to Netflix. Because not all movies and TV shows have the same height-to-width ratio, there will always be black bars on some video, no matter the shape of your screen.

Some TVs make it easy to zoom in and eliminate the black bars. But this is at the expense of chopping off the sides of the picture. Us snobs on AVS forums would never stoop to such a level. We like to see the entire movie, as the director intended.

Any director that films a movie wider than 16:9 is a idiot. If movie theater and TV screens are 16:9 then why would you want it wider with black bars.

Movie theaters are typically 1.85:1 and 2.35:1, which is what most movies are made for (HDTV is 16:9 = 1.78:1). In fact, in a theater, you can often see the top/bottom of the screen shrink if the main movie is 2.35:1 after they finish the pre-movie ads and switch to the main previews and movie.

2:35:1 one or "scope" (as it is loosely called from CinemaScope) is a nice aspect ratio for movies. It is particularly a nice canvas for action. Widescreen TVs were difficult to even as 16:9 (1:77:1) because of the way that CRTs work. LCD's freed that up. Cropped "scope" looks claustrophobic and often bad to anyone who knows cinematography.

The realities are what they are. This is the same thing that happened back in the CRT days and VHS and we're seeing it again. On smaller sets (and tablets and phones and...) black bars make the picture unwatchable, so we'll see more cropping. I agree that 2:35 is where it is at for movies, and my next projector setup will defitntely be just that. However, for the masses that view material on small screens, I would be OK with cropping if the OAR is still available to me.


Here is an idea: Make the Blu Rays/HD copies OAR and crop the DVD (SD) to 16:9- that will drive all videophiles to Blu Ray and will allow SD copies to be viewed without bars on smaller sets, where the resolution makes little difference anyway. Might even stretch the life of DVDs out even longer.

Studios: Are you listening?

Actually, I am disagreeing with that part. Movies in the theater are "made" for 2.35:1 and this mimics how we see much better than 16:9 (which is 1.78:1) in that we see more side to side than up and down. I also read earlier that someone said that theaters move coverings up from the bottom and down from the top to display 2.35, thereby shrinking the screen. In almost every normal size theater in the country, this is incorrect. The screen is actually scope sized in width and instead, curtains come from the sides to shrink the screen to 1.85:1 (close to 16:9).

For those with large TVs like you and me, the bars shouldn't be annoying and, if you really want to enjoy the film as it was intended, should be presented in scope format at home, which can be done with a projector. Also, the scope aspect could easily be presented in an anamorphic mode just as DVDs are with the scope being squeezed into the 16X9 frame on a blu ray, eliminating your argument on loss of resolution.

However, I am saying that SD sources could, and maybe should be cropped or "panned and scanned" if you prefer, to fill up smaller 16:9 screens which do not benefit as much from the higher HD resolutions. A trade off that I think benefits everyone involved. In fact, from time to time, I will reencode a video from my Tivos for use on my tablet on a trip and I take the extra time to crop it so it fits the tablet. I have no issues with it as I still have the OAR (original aspect ratio) version at home.
Edited by larrimore - 2/21/13 at 8:27am

Many video projectors will scale a 2.35 image in the vertical plane to 1080, there are several external video processors that will do the same. Then you place an anamorphic lens in front of the projector lens to stretch the 1.78 image to 2.35 the horizontal plane. Yes, the image is still 800 pixels in the vertical but you are using all of the display pixels.

There are efforts underway to get the studios to release true anamorphic Blu-ray titles. If they do then you would not need a scaler, only an anamorphic lens. Now we would have a true 2.35 with a full 1080 in the vertical plane. 2.35 video projector screens are readily available from most of the leading suppliers.

This is what I was alluding to in my earlier post. This is much needed IMHO.

No, what I was saying is that 2:35 is the perfect aspect for movies and has been proven to be a more engaging format in several studies. I don't want to handicap movies in the theater (or at home for those wishing to have the best experience) because TVs are 16:9 ratio.
Edited by larrimore - 2/22/13 at 7:16am